Day 20

The second day of the quarters had two interesting fixtures, with England taking on Portugal in the first for the day. With Owen out injured, and Walcott on the bench so far, Rooney was started as the lone striker with Gerrard and Lampard supporting him. Probably mistake number one by Sven! As the game progressed, either team had equal chances but failed to convert. The game slowly trickled down to half time with the scores even. The second half started in similar fashion, but on the 62th minute, disaster for England as Rooney receives his marching orders for a stamp on Carvalho, and his Man U teammate, Ronaldo, was urging the referee to punish Rooney. He seemed to wink at his bench as well - which has raised a few eyebrows. Rooney's departure meant, they had to bring on a striker to try and make something happen and so enter Crouch again!Btw, if you -like me- are wondering why Walcott was on the squad list, I guess the lad wished for a sight seeing trip and he got his wish granted - many thanks to generous Sven! Ok, back to the game! Contrary to what people thought, England - without Rooney, and with 10 men- produced their best performance in the world cup and were unfortunate not to take the lead. As the clock slowly ticked towards the end of extra time, a cloud of mixed feeling settled over the English camp. And the cloud turned dark when Ronaldo scored from the spot to hand the win to Portugal. Lampard who had had a very very disappointing World Cup, missed from the spot (and not too many people were surprised!), but later Gerrard had his saved as well to sum up England's performance on the whole. To wrap it up, Carragher had his twice taken penalty saved and complete Scolari's successive hat trick of wins over England in major competitions. The only bright speck was Hargreaves performance which deserved at least a mention here. But, by now, English interest in the World Cup is over and so is Sven Goran Ericksson's.
England 0-1 Portugal PS(1-3)
Sabrosa(PRO)-Scored, Lampard(ENG)-Saved, Viana(Por)-Missed, Hargreaves(ENG)-Scored, Petit(POR)-Missed, Gerrard(ENG)-Saved, Postiga(POR)-Scored, Carragher(ENG)-Saved, Ronaldo(POR)-Scored

The final place in the Semi's was a keen contest between the defending Champions Brazil and the 1998 World Champions France. Brazil started brightly but looked to be playing second fiddle for an 'aging' French team in which Zizou was pulling all the strings in midfield. With all the attacking talent that they possess, Brazil cut a sorry figure as they failed to penetrate the French last line. The second half started in similar fashion with France still holding the upper hand and were rewarded in the 57th minute when Thierry Henry finished off a superb volley from a free kick to give the French the lead. After conceding, Brazil started pushing forward in search of the equliaser, but unfortunately it never came. France emerged the winners and proceed to the semi's to take on Portugal - who conquered England - with the hope of making it to the finals in Berlin.
Brazil 0-1 France
57-Henry(FRA)